Sustainability of Honey (Remixed Essay) -Kirsten West

There are many foods which are considered to be sustainable. To me, sustainable means to preserve. If a food item comes from a home grown place in which it is taken good care of, it’s considered to be sustainable. For example, tomatoes that are grown fresh from a garden are sustainable, or eggs from a farm are also sustainable. I took a further look at one food item, honey. I took a trip to three grocery stores: King Soopers, Walmart, and Vitamin Cottage. I noticed that there were many different brands of honey, along with other food items that said they had honey as an ingredient.

How can we tell if the honey is sustainable? I looked at mass produced brands such as Kroger, and I noticed that both brands did not specify exactly where they process their honey, so therefore you don’t know exactly if it’s sustainable or not. At King Soopers, I found a brand called Ambrosia. Ambrosia has a label on the back that says, “Our honey is processed in a pesticide free farm,” which means it’s sustainable. At Walmart, I learned that the Capilano brand is the market leader of honey in Australia, and has premium quality honey products produced by Australian bee keepers. The company's heritage spans over 55 years, and generations of Australian bee keepers who have grown up producing honey, take care of bees which make it sustainable. Last, The Agave Nectar honey was the only product in Vitamin Cottage that is sustainable because it originates from Colorado Springs, and they are a local farm that takes care of the bees to ensure that the hives are safe from damage.

Although there are many different brands of honey, there are also loads of food which are said to have honey in it, or honey flavoring. General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios

and Nabisco Teddy Grahams are mass produced products. They both contain no facts about where the honey comes from, so in this case it’s hard to tell wether or not they contain honey or if it’s sustainable. Other food items such are Arizona Green Tea with Honey, or Honey Gold Fish, but have no honey in them, just sugar.

Sugar is the main ingredient in honey, but honey produces its own sugars which makes it natural. Sometimes it’s very difficult to tell if the ing

redients in food are sustainable, but others can be easy if you put in a little research.